A group of writers were sitting around the other night doing what we do best before a Cavaliers game — eating. While munching and waiting for one of the NBA’s best teams to take the floor, what do you suppose the conversation turned to?

Well, it didn’t turn to as much as it was consumed by ... the Cleveland Browns.

We are such miserable louts and as such take great joy in finding misery. There is no better place to find that than at 76 Lou Groza Blvd. A Browns insider told me the atmosphere at headquarters is, to put it mildly, miserable. New Head Coach Eric Mangini is running the place like Napoleon.

Days after Mangini slobbered about the history and tradition of the team, he had a mural of former Browns greats taken down near the players’ entrance. OK, maybe he wants the team to make new history and quit living in the past, but they had better understand the past.

The Browns are — hands down — the worst operated pro team in Cleveland, and that’s all we could talk about?

We were incredulous at some of the team’s moves, such as owner Randy Lerner handing out close to $30 million in salaries, then purging his staff.

Many of us had friends who worked for the Browns. They were laid off from $50,000-per-year-type of jobs. It’s hard to wrap your head around that when Lerner is paying former Head Coach Romeo Crennel, former GM Phil Savage and former Offensive Coordinator Rob Chudzinski about $28 million not to work for the Browns next year. That’s bad business, and that’s being a bad owner.

If you want to know what kind of flavor new GM George Kokinis has when talking to the media, stick a piece of notebook paper in your mouth and chew on it for a half hour.

I give Mangini and Kokinis no more than three years before Lerner has sold the team. That’s right. Lerner will sell the team before he hires another head coach.

Mangini is alienating players already. At a recent public function that Mangini and Pro Bowler Shaun Rogers attended, Rogers said he had yet to meet Mangini but hoped to that night. A few minutes later, Mangini walked past Rogers, who’s hard to miss at 360 pounds, without introducing himself.

Yeah, I see how things are starting. Mangini will run off the guys who don’t worship at his feet in the locker room, then need more “time” to rebuild the roster, thus keeping Lerner’s endless circle of rebuilding going.

If Lerner, Mangini and Kokinis fail, maybe he’ll do us a favor and sell the Browns to LeBron James.

I have it from a very reliable source that at the function Mangini and Rogers were at, Mangini was on his way to speak to somebody and that is why he passed Rogers.

And while Rogers is a big dude, I am sure there were other big dudes in attendance, and Mangini did not bring along his scale to distinguish between the 360 pounders and the 300 pounders.

As Pup said, the mural is in the process of being moved to a better location with more visibility.

Many of us also have friends that are being laid off right now due to the economy, but do you see us crying about it in our reporting (message boards, blogs, etc). In addition, those friends were let go because they were leaking info to Mr. Porter and others.

Who cares what the reporters think of Mangini. I like his hard ass attitude. Reporters don't win games.

good god u guys are right we are gunna get one of these a week until training camp then they'll be five. mangini is a asshole, and to be quite honest we need that, i hope it turns into a swagger not a brain billick

"On an off shooting night all you have is your fundamentals and your momma, cause she believes in you Mo!!!!" - - - Uncle Austin after Clippers 3/11/09 believe baby believe

Many of us had friends who worked for the Browns. They were laid off from $50,000-per-year-type of jobs.

This explains a lot, and should be bolded in the article,

You know what

More power to the guy.

We have not had solid leadership in the locker room dating back to the 80's. Sometimes being a dick and not letting the media know every single little thing that goes on in the organization can be what the doctor ordered. Do successful NFL franchises have leaks and press conferences every other week? I don't see Belichick doing that, I don't see Tomlin doing that, and I see a team like Dallas implode because of it.

As for not introducing yourself to Rogers, uh, So what? If Rogers was so intent on meeting him and such, he could've went up to him and introduced himself. I'm sure it would've been no big deal.

Swerb wrote:Go start a blog if you want to tell the world your incomprehendible ramblings.

Cerebral_DownTime wrote:I have a big arm and can throw the ball pretty damn far...... maybe even over those moutains. The Browns should sign me, i'll let you all in locker room to drink beer. Then we can all go out the parking lot to watch me do motorcycle stunts.

Im so tired of the drama. Let the guy do his job. Romeo made everyone his friend....howd that work out for us? As long as Mangini has the team's hard work and respect, who gives a fuck how we get there? Nothing else has worked thus far, so lets try things his way. The guy hasnt said more than a few words since being hired, and he has turned in to an asshole? Do you want him to give the "state of the browns" address every week from his house, just to put us at ease? The media is pissed and turning their backs on him because he isnt telling you his master plan for 2009. We dont need updates every 5 minutes. In Cleveland, no news is good news.

Actually, the Med. And it took a coalition of several nations to finally take him down, including the Prussians on land and the English at sea (think the '85 Bears D combined with the '07 Patriots offense). If the Browns beat every individual team and then lose to the NFC All-Pro's, I'm fine with it.

Seriously though, who gives a flying fuck how "mean" he is to the media. I hate the media too. Maybe he decided that the players in the mural so little resembled the players currently suiting up for this franchise had so little in common that he would remove it until they earned the right to walk the walls with Groza, Graham and Brown painted on them. The point is, football seasons are not congeniality contests. RAC was a nice guy, by all accounts. BB is a dick. Ask me who I'd rather have leading my franchise right now. Lets AT LEAST reserve judgement until we see what kind of product shows up on the field in 2009.

You cannot help men permanently by doing for them what they could and should do for themselves-----Abe Lincoln

Let me tell you, if any of you douchebag empty headed stuffed suit nanny politicians tries to fuck with my bacon, I’m going after you like a crazed chimpanzee on bath salts. -----Lars

Until I hear players or coaches saying this guy's a d-bag, I'll give him the benefit of the doubt. What writers and reporters say about him means nothing to me. They're not the ones out there on Sundays except to get their hands on the free buffet.

Galley Boys are slop on top of a so-so burger and a bun you coulde get from a Covneninet food mart generic pack. They the Antoine Joubert of burgers; soft, sloppy, oozing grease and cheap sauce and extremely overrated by a biased fan base. Proof that if you throw enough cheap sauce shit on a burger you still can't overcome the lame burger. -JB

This is why quality sites like this are succeeding in droves and shitty news papers are losing circulation! They don't have anything better to write about other than where a guy hangs a F@#$!ing picture! And all those people that lost those $50K/yr jobs-they obviously weren't very good at them. I can't wait till the Browns start cutting guys with $1M/yr jobs too!

Anything is possible in the life of a man if he lives long enough. Even adulthood.--Howell Raines

I love what I'm hearing about this regime. We need to be tough, who cares about whiny reporters! The players who are disciplined and want to work hard for the cause will stay, the others who get "alienated" because Mangini hurts their feelings can leave. I'm pretty sure this will weed out the losers and bring out the best in everyone else. If it costs us talents like Braylon oh well, but maybe Braylon will react well to the new regime and rediscover his previous form.

WKNR is reporting this story like it is breaking news or something. They are reporting everything that was in the newspaper 2 days ago, and calling them "very reliable sources".....yeah, the source is the newspaper you idiots. Im going to start reading profootballtalk.com and reporting it as a "very close friend of mine", so you all think that im important.

lubber wrote:Many of us also have friends that are being laid off right now due to the economy, but do you see us crying about it in our reporting (message boards, blogs, etc). In addition, those friends were let go because they were leaking info to Mr. Porter and others.

Who cares what the reporters think of Mangini. I like his hard ass attitude. Reporters don't win games.

Well we are not professional writers and reporters, they are, so it goes with the territory that they would in fact write about the hard times etc. Guys like us might not write about it, we simply talk about it at the lunch table or at home with family and friends etc, what's the difference.

Just felt like adding that and giving lubber a hard time since it seems the in thing to do.

Carry on.

Criminals in this town used to believe in things...honor, respect."I heard your dog is sick, so bought you this shovel"

4thQtrGlory wrote:WKNR is reporting this story like it is breaking news or something. They are reporting everything that was in the newspaper 2 days ago, and calling them "very reliable sources".....yeah, the source is the newspaper you idiots. Im going to start reading profootballtalk.com and reporting it as a "very close friend of mine", so you all think that im important.

I'm listening too, I think Rizzo said "very reliable sources" told him about how bad things were at the END of the Romeo-Phil regime, with the texting during walk throughs and inmates running the asylum so to speak.

Romeo ran Berea like a kindergarten. Anyone who comes in and imposes a little discipline is going to look like Napolean. Crybaby athletes are a problem on this team. They don't need to be coddled. Good for Mangini.

So is it Mangini that is unfair to the press, or it is the press that is unfair to Mangini?

The more I hear mangini...him acting like a dick, reminds me a big of the early criticism that Tom Coughlin received in NYC.

And I mean, that worked out horribly in New York didn't it?

I'd rather have a guy in the office going over film and being too busy to talk to the press, than some guy who's a media hound.

I dig that the real football players on this team like Josh Cribbs are buying into the program and like the fact there is more discipline in the locker room (no music, no messing around.), it's something this franchise has been lacking for YEARS.

Mind you I am in no way sold on him yet what-so-ever. But, I support him putting some discipline and leadership in the franchise.

Swerb wrote:Go start a blog if you want to tell the world your incomprehendible ramblings.

Cerebral_DownTime wrote:I have a big arm and can throw the ball pretty damn far...... maybe even over those moutains. The Browns should sign me, i'll let you all in locker room to drink beer. Then we can all go out the parking lot to watch me do motorcycle stunts.

Fans are upset at the silence - nothing out of the FO. Too secretive.He hasn't met yet with any of his star playersThe HOF TE and stud RB both have said publicly they want outPeople are already questioning the processNo one likes the short list of HC candidates

The above complaints are brought to you by KC Chefs fans, and are all aimed at Scott Pioli

P.S. Regime change is hard.

I don't need to be patient, they're going to be shit forever. - CDT, discussing my favorite NFL team

I'm cool with keeping the media away if they think it works for the organization. But I hope they understand that if things don't go well at any point, they're gonna be hit hard by reporters, columnists, and fans in this town who wanted more explanation. You don't have to like the media to understand the need for good media relations.

buckeye319 wrote:I'm cool with keeping the media away if they think it works for the organization. But I hope they understand that if things don't go well at any point, they're gonna be hit hard by reporters, columnists, and fans in this town who wanted more explanation. You don't have to like the media to understand the need for good media relations.

If things start going horribly bad it will not matter how they treated the media up to that point. RAC was beyond nice to the media, I did not see any of them bending over to try and save his job. Nor did I hear many fans standing up and defending their coach who was more than available to them and the media.

buckeye319 wrote:I'm cool with keeping the media away if they think it works for the organization. But I hope they understand that if things don't go well at any point, they're gonna be hit hard by reporters, columnists, and fans in this town who wanted more explanation. You don't have to like the media to understand the need for good media relations.

If things start going horribly bad it will not matter how they treated the media up to that point. RAC was beyond nice to the media, I did not see any of them bending over to try and save his job. Nor did I hear many fans standing up and defending their coach who was more than available to them and the media.

I thought the media were patient with Romeo and gave him the benefit of the doubt a lot of the time (not unfairly necessarily). I guess what I'm saying is the media and fans could start giving them hell earlier on if they close ranks. But hey, if they don't give care that's their business.

I see what you're saying; my only problem with the premise: is that if you're not planning on failing then you really don't need to worry about how to save face if you do. I mean if the only reason to keep the media happy is for someone to have your back if you falter, and you're not planning to falter; then I understand why they're saying F- Off to the media....especially with the apparent leaks from the old guard.

buckeye319 wrote:I'm cool with keeping the media away if they think it works for the organization. But I hope they understand that if things don't go well at any point, they're gonna be hit hard by reporters, columnists, and fans in this town who wanted more explanation. You don't have to like the media to understand the need for good media relations.

Honestly, wtf kind of explanation do people want? The same damn thing that every other regime in every other town (and here) says when they come in?

"We're going to build through the draft.""We're going to bring in guys who are tough and are football players and who know how to win.""We're going to have a disciplined, hard nosed team.""We're going to create a culture of winning, and anyone who doesn't buy in will be gone.""There is talent on this team, but it will take time to build a long team that will compete for years, which is our plan."

If you want an explanation of what they are going to do, go back and read the articles from when Butch was brought in and from when Phil/Romeo were brought in. They're the same damn articles and quotes. It's just like how every training camp guys look great, WRs are really turning heads in practice with great catches, Jamal Lewis/some other over the hill schmuck is in the best shape of his life, blah blah blah.

These writers could just recycle the same articles every time and use the CTRL+F and replace the names.

I know more about pizza than you. Much more in fact. - Cerebral_DownTime

Bill the Butcher wrote:And was also exiled to an island in the Atlantic...

...........TWICE!

Once in the Atlantic, once in the Med. Funny, they learned their lesson after he escaped from Elba...St. Helena was literaly in the middle of the ocean, no where near any landmass. Where's HermanFontenot on this one??

You cannot help men permanently by doing for them what they could and should do for themselves-----Abe Lincoln

Let me tell you, if any of you douchebag empty headed stuffed suit nanny politicians tries to fuck with my bacon, I’m going after you like a crazed chimpanzee on bath salts. -----Lars

Gotribe31 wrote:Once in the Atlantic, once in the Med. Funny, they learned their lesson after he escaped from Elba...St. Helena was literaly in the middle of the ocean, no where near any landmass. Where's HermanFontenot on this one??

Napoleon's soldiers were incredibly loyal to him much like Alexander The Great's were. Both instilled discipline and both were loved by his soldiers.

To this day we have buttons on the sleeves of our coats and suit jackets, because Napoleon ordered buttons sewn on to uniforms of his soldiers after witnessing one soldier use his sleeve to wipe his nose. He demanded that his soldiers were well drilled, clean, and mannered, and the discipline and orderliness he instilled gave him the edge in many battles were he was outmanned.

Tree wrote:Napoleon's soldiers were incredibly loyal to him much like Alexander The Great's were. Both instilled discipline and both were loved by his soldiers.

To this day we have buttons on the sleeves of our coats and suit jackets, because Napoleon ordered buttons sewn on to uniforms of his soldiers after witnessing one soldier use his sleeve to wipe his nose. He demanded that his soldiers were well drilled, clean, and mannered, and the discipline and orderliness he instilled gave him the edge in many battles were he was outmanned.

Galley Boys are slop on top of a so-so burger and a bun you coulde get from a Covneninet food mart generic pack. They the Antoine Joubert of burgers; soft, sloppy, oozing grease and cheap sauce and extremely overrated by a biased fan base. Proof that if you throw enough cheap sauce shit on a burger you still can't overcome the lame burger. -JB

Job well done: Players at the Pro Bowl often treat assistant coaches, teammates, family members or others important to them to the luau festivities in Honolulu, Hawaii. Browns nose tackle Shaun Rogers was so appreciative of the job done by former Browns communications director Amy Palcic that he paid for her to attend the Pro Bowl. Rogers arrived in Cleveland with a reputation of being media unfriendly. He thought Palcic helped change that image. Palcic was a victim of the Browns' recent layoffs.